Love of the Ages

Five

Rikki hadn't been entirely sure of what he was getting into when he'd told the young woman–Aerin, she'd said her name was–he'd fly out to North Carolina. He still wasn't completely sure, but like he'd told his wife before bidding her, their son, and their daughter goodbye, he felt this was something he had to do. Time could very well be running out for him, and if he didn't go investigate what could be the only lead on Bobby that actually panned out, it might very well be too late.

Despite being exhausted from having to get up really early to catch his flight on top of his recent medical crisis, he managed to navigate through the airport he landed at in Greensboro. The drummer'd called Aerin the Night before to give her the flight information so she could pick him up, but he wasn't quite sure what she looked like.

Seeing a petite young woman holding up a sign with his name on it once he got outside told him exactly who she was, though. In all Honesty, he'd totally say she was his friend's type, 'cuz the bassist almost always seemed to gravitate toward the petite, Dark-toned girls that looked relatively exotic. Well, that's what he'd gone after when he wasn't busy trying to piss Bret off back in 1987, but that'd been a long Time ago. Whether this Time Travel business was true or not, his preferences coulda very well Changed–and drastically–in the ensuing twenty-nine Years.

"Hey there, Rikki," the young woman said once she'd spotted him and he'd gotten close enough to hear. "Lemme help ya with those, and don't argue with me."

"I think you've the roles reversed," Rikki chuckled, although he was thankful for the help since he was a bit more winded than he'd thought he'd be.

"Go on up to the front and hop in," she told him. "I can handle getting your bags in while you're catching your breath. What I can't handle is having to give ya CPR and explain to Bobby why you're in the hospital with a cracked Coconut, let alone anyone on the West Coast who'd need to know."

"Fair enough, I suppose," the drummer agreed. "I don't think Jude and Lucy need to be coming out here 'cuz Daddy almost keeled–and not from what they already knew about."

Aerin quite literally bit her tongue as she loaded up his couple bags, then slammed the hatch and joined him up front. "Whaddaya mean, almost keeled–and from something they already knew about?"

"Well, there's more reason why I wanted to come and do this than what I said on the phone," he sighed. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at her, and those greenish-blue eyes were tortured, to say the least. "Aerin, I got diagnosed with throat cancer back in December."

"Wait a minute, what?" the young woman asked, shocked and horrified.

"Doc said I'd caught HPV–likely Years, if not decades ago–and that it was one of those strains that caused various forms of cancer," Rikki explained. "I've been going through various treatments–which's why I'm so winded–'cuz I'm not ready to die, but I know it might not work."

"So, what's your prognosis as of right now? Like, this Morn when ya left, right now?" she asked curiously.

"Doc says the tumor under my tongue's shrinking, and seems to be doing so faster than he'd thought," the drummer answered. "He told me at first that I might very well lose my tongue at best, my Life at worst, but he doesn't seem to think I'll lose either one."

"Well, that's always a good thing," Aerin told him.

"Yeah, butcha know how cancer is–there's always a chance it could come back in the Future," he said. "And if I'm that one person it comes back for, I wanna see Bobby for myself one last Time before it does."

Without taking her eyes off the road, considering she'd been headed back toward Burlington the whole Time they were talking, the young woman reached over and squeezed his hand. Rikki was a bit surprised by the Energy he felt from just that gentle touch, which was far more than just a Comforting squeeze like he was used to with most people. This felt like he was a battery and she the charger, feeding him a current of raw Energy to recharge and restore himself with.